'They are often diagnosed too late.'

Currently when a child arrives at a hospital medics have no fast way of identifying whether they are suffering from meningitis or a less serious viral condition with similar symptoms.

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Professor Michael Levin said: “Every year many children are sent away from emergency departments or doctors’ surgery because the medical team thinks they have a viral infection, when in fact they are suffering from life-threatening bacterial infections, which are often diagnosed too late.”

An accurate diagnosis for meningitis can take up to 48 hours with current tests requiring doctors to test a sample of spinal fluid, or blood, from the child.

Now scientists at Imperial College London have identified two genes that are only switched on when a child is suffering from a bacterial infection.